At the present time (2024) Qualified Actuaries (Fellows or Associates) who obtained their qualification from the following organisations are eligible for verified membership once their qualification has been verified:

• Actuarial Society of South Africa
• Actuaries Institute of Australia
• Canadian Institute of Actuaries
• Casualty Actuarial Society
• Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (or its precursors: Institute of Actuaries, Faculty of Actuaries)
• Institute of Actuaries of India
• Israel Association of Actuaries
• Society of Actuaries
• Society of Actuaries in Ireland.

These organisations have been chosen because of their broad similarity (as reflected by their connection via bilateral mutual recognition agreements for each organisation above with at least one other organisation above, either equating Associate to Associate, or Fellow to Fellow, or both) and very significant examination requirements in addition to a university degree.

No. In the same way that some actuaries are members of both the IFoA and the (US) SOA or the (South African) ASSA or the SAI (Ireland), there is no restriction from INQA GROUP's point of view on members joining other organisations at the same time.  (Such a restriction would arguably be anti-competitive and illegal, as indeed would for example a restriction placed by another body on actuaries joining INQA GROUP).  But note that since INQA GROUP's membership fees are designed to be cost neutral, there will be no reduction in the INQA GROUP fees for actuaries who are members of other organisations.  There is also no concept of primary regulator: all INQA GROUP members are subject to our Code of Professional Conduct, regardless of any other organisation they may be part of.

You will need to check with the relevant legal authority, but the short answer is probably not.

Most (but not necessarily all, e.g. you can be Chief Actuary of a non life insurance company in the UK without being an IFoA Fellow provided you are not an IFoA member) reserved roles require either through legislation or statutory regulation that the holder is a current Fellow of the IFoA.  Other countries may have similar requirements with regards to the relevant country associations (e.g. SOA/CAS for USA, ASSA for South Africa).

The situation in other countries may be different.  But with regard to the UK, only about 10 % of IFoA Fellows work in a reserved role, so for 90% of Fellows this should not be a problem.  For those who it might become one (e.g. because they are likely to be considered for a reserved role in the near future), it would be very unreasonable (providing the Fellow can provide evidence of having kept up good CPD [Continuing Professional Development] during any period of leaving the IFoA) for the IFoA to refuse to readmit the member prior to their taking up the reserved role.  (The Fellow would of course need to meet the IFoA's requirements regarding obtaining a Practice Certificate).

For professional indemnity purposes, the key question that insurers normally want to know the answer to is:

• whether a person who says they hold an actuarial qualification genuinely obtained that qualification (i.e. if they say they passed the exams to become a Fellow of e.g. the Institute of Actuaries in year yyyy, is that correct).

Other questions that might be asked include:

• does the person follow a code of professional conduct and if so which one
• do they have a clean professional conduct record.

Qualified actuaries who have (and maintain) Verified status with INQA GROUP will be able to provide evidence (to brokers, but also to employers, clients and others) to answer the above questions by pointing to their publicly available entry in INQA GROUP's Find An Actuary page on the website. It is a condition of retaining Verified status that actuaries agree to abide by INQA GROUP's Code of Professional Conduct.

The level of charges set out above are designed to cover the costs of running and administering the organisation and website.

These include:

• reasonable secretariat time to verify that qualified actuaries are who they say they are and have passed the exams they claim to have passed
• infrastructure costs including website/database/file storage/bandwidth cloud charges and software licenses
• secretariat time in developing and maintaining the above
• secretariat administration time (e.g. responding to enquiries, sending out information to members, maintaining the International Qualified Actuaries Directory)
• building up reserves for any future disciplinary investigations and possible tribunals. (These are expected to be rare, but will need to be paid for if/when they arise).

The aim is not to make a profit over the long term, but to cover reasonable costs and to avoid any significant cross subsidies across different categories of members or different types of services.  Covering possible future disciplinary cases is different and requires a form of insurance including initially building up reserves while membership numbers build up. There are also initial setup costs (including developing the initial infrastructure) which will need to be recouped.

We are committed to a very high level of transparency as to how funds are spent. 

IAA/AAE membership fees are not included because a) they are fixed by the IAA/AAE (around £20 per qualified member for each of IAA and AAE), and b) INQA GROUP would not be eligible to join IAA fully until it has been in existence for 3 full years and joining the AAE  would require a MRA (Mutual Recognition Agreement). In any case, whether INQA GROUP joins the IAA (or AAE) in due course will be up to members.